Good evening! Today has seen the third sequence of rehearsals this year, including surprises and disappointments. After Martin’s efforts yesterday, it’s my turn again to review the videos of the day and give my comments, based on my personal opinion.

Two things have disturbed my focus and passion today, one being my absolute favourite disappointing on all levels, the other being a chicken bone that I swallowed when watching Ukraine.

But more on those matters further down. Here’s my review!

Serbia

We ended blue with Jedward yesterday, and we continued blue with Željko Joksimović, who is a well known man to all of us, so I can’t really say anything new about him anymore. His rehearsal was good, no question. Vocally near perfection. Later, red joins the blue on stage and it reminds a bit of the Confluence Of Sound theme of the ESC 2008 (that he hosted). So basically, this rehearsal was absolutely fine, just:

Nije Ljubav Stvar isn’t memorable at all. The few notes that are kind of recognizable, are exactly that, because we have heard them before. For example last year in the Danish entry. This is not plagiarism, it’s just nothing new and authentic either. Surely, there are a few beautiful instrumental moments in this, but this whole thing is – despite the perfection – leaving me very cold.

Macedonia

(no matter what I call this country, someone will be annoyed, so I’ll alternate every now and then)

Kaliopi is the biggest problem that Zeljko has. She simply rocks that stage, delivers a solid performance. She has the most special voice in the whole year, which seems to do two notes within an octave at once. It’s not necessarily pleasant for everyone, but it is a very rare phenomenon.

Crno I Belo is another song in blue, unlike the black and white that one might expect. I can smell this getting more votes than Serbia, but my nose might be wrong too. Who nose.

The Netherlands

Joan Franka was my big favourite in 2012 up until this day. I am, frankly, disappointed to say the least. Not because she wears the feathers, that’s the only chance for Netherlands to actually attract some attention. Though, opinions are diverse on whether it’s causing joy or ridicule. I belong(ed) to the first group. What really bothers me is the way they changed the performance. The cheerful (and tacky but that’s why they were remarkable) tambourine ladies got replaced by boooooring (I would like to imitate Martin’s voice there cos he likes to pronounce this word in a special way) guys. Boring.

You And Me lost its dynamics. Its charming fun got replaced by masculine tediousness. Its potential to get very far in the final is gone.

Malta

Kurt Calleja is just there. The whole thing is just there, and it’s not bad. I am admittedly not a big fan of this kind of song, but this was a solid, tight, confident rehearsal.

This Is The Night is one of the more trivial entries, but Malta makes the best out of it, in all disciplines: Staging, vocals and (admittedly not my kind of) fun.

Belarus

Litesound finally made it to Eurovision, and they got oomph. Just sometimes a bit too much, maybe. The stage begins in blue (again! we blame Yohanna!), but gets very yellow with the chorus. The singer is wearing some Mando-esque medieval lingery and looks somehow like a guy from the 80s or 90s, with his Nick Carter memorial hairdo. He struggles to appear likeable, but is more photogenic than Rambo Amadeus, to say the least. There is messy singing and moving going on, but at least they make use of the stage.

We Are The Heroes is slightly repetitive, but catchy and good enough to make some fans of that kind of music listen… and maybe vote.

Portugal

Filipa Sousa, I have a confession to make. I underestimated this. The Portuguese rehearsal turns out to be my Aha! moment of the day. I had this on my list as “uninspired”, but today told me otherwise. The backdrop is one of the most beautiful we have seen so far in the rehearsals, the vocals are spot on, they can’t make it much better really. It will show if the song is instant enough for people to vote for it, but so far, Portugal has done its homeworks.

Vida Minha brings the Fado to Baku, and in a much better way than we expected.

Ukraine

Gaitana sings – as expected – like Gaitana sings. Totally over the top, and the same is her show. She kind of goes around the “6 persons on stage rule” by taking her own LEDs on stage, showing dancers, dancers, and even more dancers. In all kind of colours. I don’t know what is distracting from what more, the displays from Gaitana’s voice, or Gaitana’s voice from the displays – but I guess it doesn’t matter, because by the time she comes to an end, people will have noticed it. There is no way of missing this, unless you go get more food or do the opposite.

Be My Guest is over the top, messy, didn’t impress me, but will impress enough voters. I was more impressed by the chicken bone that I swallowed while watching it.

Bulgaria

Sofi Marinova sang well enough in her first rehearsal (like shockingly most entrants we heard so far), but something is wrong there. The song, the production is pop, but somehow different, more mythical if I can say that, but she thinks: “Oh, Joan Franka is wearing feathers, I can wear leopard skin”. And with this song, it doesn’t work. Even more, the way she moves is just wrong.

Love Unlimited could have been – and should have been – a hypnotic, mythical show like Georgia 2007 was, but she turns it into the karaoke hour of a children’s birthday.

Tomorrow will bring an end to some speculations: How much will Loreen’s performance be changed? How WTF will Georgia be? Will Donny Montell bring his blindfold again? We will see tomorrow, in probably the most anticipated rehearsal day of the week. Stay tuned, we will tweet our first impressions again!